Page 101 of Claws of Death

Thankfully, I’ve lived every minute of my life improvising during the curse, so I know how to pivot. “There’s a forest a bit back east,” I say with as much an upbeat tone as I can manage with my unconscious mate in my palms. “I’m surewe can find rainwater collected in leaves or between roots.” Not in the mud beneath our feet—not without magic to filter it. “We’ll walk until dawn; then we’ll rest. Tomorrow either Silas can shift or Tata can site-hop. Whoever is first will get us help.”

Nobody objects when I start walking with Ayna between my palms, Royad falling into step beside me and Silas and Herinor at my back. Tata and Recienne bring up the rear. The moon is our witness as we leave the battlefield behind, muscles sore, multiple cuts on various parts of our bodies, and stranded in the human lands.

“You’ll need to do something about that wound of yours,” my cousin says after a few minutes of me suppressing the cache at the center of my chest where the hole in my flesh is still bothering me. “No one will benefit from you falling over with your last breath in the middle of our escape.”

Naturally, he’s right. I’ve become all too used to him being right over too many centuries. But he isn’t right about this.

“You’d be king,” I say flatly, and Royad almost stumbles over his own feet.

“Not while your mate is alive to rule.” He doesn’t pause long enough for me to inform him my mate might not survive the night. “She’ll bring you back from the dead just to kill you all over again for leaving her behind among these wrecked remains of a people.”

My teeth cut into my lip as I bite back a response I know I’ll regret. “Let’s find cover first. Everything within sight has been burned to cinders. We need a place to actually hideuntil we recover enough to shift or site-hop.Thenwe can dwell on who might or might not make it through this hike. Because, once someone finds the melee we left behind, we won’t get far.” We’ll be hunted down and brought back to Erina’s dungeon. I don’t need to add that, though. Royad can put two and two together.

“Why do you think they didn’t use the serum on all of us right away?” It’s a good question. One I’m grateful we need to ask, or we wouldn’t have stood a chance from the beginning.

“And that magic-repellant armor…” Silas adds. “That was nasty. If Ayna hadn’t figured it out, we might have continued wasting our power instead of simply cutting those fuckers down like twigs.”

“It seems to be a new feature,” Royad muses. Even when he wasn’t there to witness the battle, he was right there with the source.

“Did Jeseida say anything?” I prompt, well aware they were probably fighting their own battle in that wagon. One of will if what I know of the Flame Matrone is anything to go by.

Behind me, Herinor grumbles something unintelligible while Royad cringes, and anger rises in my veins, pushing so hard I can almost sense a flicker of my power, but the serum is still blanketing all attempts of it to break through. If it weren’t for that damn hole in my chest, I’d probably recover faster.

“You don’t need to share if you?—”

“Guardians be damned, they do,” Recienneinterrupts me, less swagger in his tone than I’m used to. “If there is any information to be gained, I’d rather know now,beforewe face the Flames hunting us down, because theywill.So, what happened inside the wagon?”

“He’s right.” To my surprise, it’s Herinor offering up the information willingly, not my selfless cousin.

Tata must have given the Fairy King a recap of the fight, or he wouldn’t even know Herinor and Royad were trapped there.

“They were practically waiting for us when we cut through the canvas of the wagon.”

Beside me, Royad swallows.

“Jeseida and her guards had the serum at the ready and splashed us in the face.” Herinor grimaces as if he can still taste the damn liquid. “They plucked our swords from our hands and knocked us out so fast we couldn’t even react.”

“That sucker of a drug,” Silas comments, earning a nod from Royad.

Usually, our reflexes are fast enough to react to an attack, but the magic-sedating serum is its own brand of horror. It affects our organism so quickly we can barely keep up.

“They knew we were coming,” Herinor continues, tone stony. “They were counting on all of us attacking from the air.” He pauses. “At least the Crows. Jeseida expressed verbally and with fists just how disappointed she was so few of us had plunged into the wagon. She even had the other wagons set up in a way that we’d take a bath in the drug upon landing.”

My entire body tightens at the thought of what would have happened had we not chosen to ambush them from all sides at once. Plus … she hurt them?—

“If she wasn’t already dead, I’d skin her alive. Slowly.” It’s all I have to say.

Silas growls his agreement, and surprisingly, even Recienne voices he’d gladly help.

“So, if they knew we were coming for them… Was it even a real transport?” A valid question Tata is asking.

“It was real. Very much so.” The conviction in Herinor’s tone is all the confirmation I need, but he continues. “Erina has been working with the Flames closely to further develop the serum so it’s more efficient, its magic-dampening strikes even faster, and the side effects are minimized.”

Jeseida mentioned that I’d be wide awake when Erina tortures me again and that I wouldn’t have days off from the effect of the drug.

“They had to get it to the army, though, and this was the fastest route for them, so they used the transport as a test run for their newest development: the magic-repellant armor. An invention that allows to smother all magic coming from the outside but allows magic to pass from its bearer.” Royad shudders but continues. “Jeseida had us watch the battle through a small gap in the canvas. She had us witness every time your powers failed to kill. To watch you deplete yourselves without even realizing what was going on.” He shakes his head, clearing it. “The Flames will stop at nothing to get what they want. Not even watching their own go up in streaks of fire.”

When I shoot him a questioning glance, he clarifies, “They had tested the armor before, but they didn’t know how long it would last against Crow magic and if it would impact the ability to withstand their own fire.”

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